Vietnam, Malaysia upgrade ties to strategic partnership

Vietnam, Malaysia upgrade ties to strategic partnership The Saigon Times Daily HCMC – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Rajak agreed to elevate Vietnam-Malaysia comprehensive partnership to a strategic one at their talks in Kuala Lumpur last Friday. At a joint press conference after his meeting with Dung, the Malyaisian leader said the decision to upgrade bilateral ties to a strategic partnership will open up a new era in the two countries’ relations. The Government’s portal chinhphu.vn cited Dung as saying that the Vietnam-Malaysia strategic partnership will not only create new driving forces for bilateral cooperation but also contribute positively to the ASEAN Community and to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world. At their talks, both government leaders spoke highly of the development in both width and depth of bilateral relations between the two nations, and discussed measures to take them to a higher plane. They agreed that economic-trade cooperation is the highlight of bilateral relations. Malaysia is a leading trade partner of and the eighth largest investor in Vietnam. The leaders vowed to foster trade within the framework of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the ASEAN Economic Community, while speeding up the signing of a Government-level memorandum of understanding on rice trade for 2015-2020. They also agreed to push the implementation of specific projects in the key sectors of oil and gas, liquefied gas, electronics, consumer goods and food processing. In terms of politics, the two sides agreed to increase… [Read full story]